1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hood interlock apparatus of an industrial vehicle, and more particularly, to a hood interlock apparatus equipped in an industrial vehicle containing a fuel cell unit including a fuel cell within an accommodation chamber provided with an openable hood.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, industrial vehicles such as fuel-cell type forklifts equipped with fuel cells as driving sources have been developed. In these industrial vehicles, a fuel cell unit may be constructed by assembling, for example, a fuel cell, components for operating the fuel cell, and components for cooling the fuel cell. The fuel cell unit may be located within an accommodation chamber formed below a driver's seat.
A hood is mounted in a manner making it freely openable at the top of the accommodation chamber so that maintenance operation for the components located within the accommodation chamber can be performed by opening the hood.
However, when the fuel cell is operating, the fuel cell in the fuel cell unit and the components to which power is supplied from the fuel cell can be at high voltage. Therefore, a structure for preventing contact with such high-voltage parts is required when the hood is open while the fuel cell is operating.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2005-143200 discloses an interlock apparatus for shutting off high voltage of an inverter. A cover is fixed to a case accommodating the inverter by means of a plurality of bolts and a sensor is mounted thereto for detecting opening/closing of the cover. The interlock apparatus shuts off power supply to the inverter when the sensor detects that the cover is open in order to shut off the high voltage. Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2006-100480 and Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2002-367666 also disclose related matters.
Contact with the high-voltage parts can be prevented, even if the hood is open while the fuel cell is operating, by applying the interlock apparatus as disclosed in the above Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2005-143200. This can be achieved by providing a cover and a sensor or the like for detecting opening/closing of the cover to each component which may possibly have high voltage while the fuel cell is operating.
However, there has been a problem in that, if a cover and a sensor or the like for detecting opening/closing of the cover are provided to each component which may possibly have high voltage while the fuel cell is operating as described above, the number of components increases and the construction becomes complicated.
The present invention has been made to eliminate the above problem, and therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a hood interlock apparatus for industrial vehicles which can prevent contact with high-voltage parts when the hood is open, whilst having a simple structure.